1. I had a week off work to catch up on my Candidacy Application. “A week” in the world of someone who only works Tuesday & Thursday mornings really means 12 days. Guess what I did? Returned two books to the library, chucked a hissy fit at the stupid effing photocopiers in the Robertson Library (there’s a reason I haven’t done a scrap of copying this year – and that’s saying something seeing as I had a $50 a week copying habit during my Honours year!), opened EndNote once (and promptly left it open for a week), watched at least three cooking shows a day, faffed about online pretending to be researching (because clicking ‘refresh’ in running forums counts as research, right?), watched seven movies (a record in one week for me, I think), and generally slothed around doing sweet fuck all. As a result, I now have more work to do than I can point the proverbial stick at (which, I’m fairly sure, is more of a cattle prong than a stick at this stage).
2. My draft candidacy application is due tomorrow night. I’m waging a war against my objectives (I don’t know! I don’t give a crap!). I haven’t done any reading on research methods yet, despite leaving myself a reminder note every single day for about the past two months. And does my research bear any significance? Sometimes I’m not so sure. I’ve spent an awful lot of time over the past week wondering why the hell I’m writing about blogging when it’s nothing new anymore. But it’s certainly still relevant, and I’m not writing about blogging so much as I’m writing about the significance of blogging upon the construction of self – the storytelling elements, the way that keeping a blog helps to clear out one’s headspace, solidify one’s opinions, that kind of thing. Blogging is obviously relevent because, well, I have three that I regularly update (although not as regularly as I should). It’s just hard to stay focused when I’m reading articles from 2002 talking about blogging… I mean, you wouldn’t go writing a paper about the relevence of ICQ these days, would you? Or maybe people still use that, too.
3. At the time of beginning writing this, I had a conference abstract due on Friday. There has since been a general extension granted until August 15th – thank Christ.
4. I’ve been asked to present a lunchtime seminar at work (i.e. at the university I work at, not the university I study at) which is exciting because it will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase my research to a group of people who have a lot more experience than me, and many of whom have been researching for longer than I’ve been walking this Earth! At the same time it’s terrifying because it will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase my research to a group of people who have a lot more experience than me, and many of whom have been researching for longer than I’ve been walking this Earth! In all seriousness, though, I initially said no. I work in the Law School – and what do lawyers know about the Internet? The chair of the seminar series has been somewhat of a mentor to me over the past year with preparing for my PhD, so she obviously thinks I’m capable. It’s just a bit scary because I’m the accounts girl – I’m not an academic. I’m a member of the admin staff. These people are lecturers, not people just learning to research. The fact that they’re not going to be familiar with my subject matter should be interesting, because I’ll have to convert everything into “layman’s terms” (granted they’re all very well educated laymen!), but that same ignorance could offer a great chance for some feedback from a perspective that I just don’t have.
5. I really am a very, very, very, very long way behind. I haven’t done anywhere near enough reading!
6. I bailed out on all bar one of the seminars and training classes I’d signed up to do last semester. I just need to get my arse into gear and do them! This became painfully evident after I almost threw my poor Computey through a window last night in frustration at not knowing how to use EndNote (I swear it’s not that hard!).
So there.
